Reign, Aces Give Preview of What's to Come

It’s a wonderful time of year to be a sports fan.

You’ve got college basketball’s March Madness. The baseball season is about to start. Football fans are gearing up for the draft. The NBA season is coming down its final stretch. And, most importantly for this sports fan, playoff hockey is about to start.

And the sell out crowd at Citizens Business Bank Arena on Friday night got a good indication of what it will be like when the Ontario Reign open the playoffs Tuesday against the Utah Grizzlies.

Tight checking. Battles for the puck up and down the ice. Tempers flaring. Goaltenders standing on their head to make the big save. And the big-time clutch goal to win the game.

It was all there as the Pacific Division (and No. 2 playoff seed) knocked off the league’s top team, the Alaska Aces, 2-1 in overtime.

Matt Register, a defenseman, took a pass from Mario Lamoreaux and skated cleanly up the middle to beat Alaska goaltender Gerald Coleman to win the game. But before all that happened, the crowd was treated to a showcase of the league’s top two teams.

The Reign and Aces will close out the season tonight at 6 p.m., both looking to finish the season — and prepare for the playoffs — on a high note.

PLAYOFFS SET: Utah lost to Colorado on Friday night, 7-4, setting the Western Conference playoff matchups.

As such, the Reign will open the playoffs at home against the Grizzlies at 7 p.m. Tuesday for Game 1 of the best-of-7 series. Game 2 will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, before the series shifts to the Salt Lake City area.

Game 3 will be Friday, with Game 4 set for Saturday night. A Game 5, if necessary, would be Tuesday.

If necessary, the series would come back to Ontario for Games 6 and 7. Game 6 would be a 7 p.m. start on Friday, with a deciding Game 7 set for 6 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets are available now. Individual games are priced between $12 and $25. The team also has various deals for playoff seats, featuring whole playoff plans, or pay as you go plans.

A GOOD CAUSE: Besides seeing Star Wars characters in the entry before the game, Friday night’s game featured a booth set up to pass out information for Be The Match, a charity that helps find bone marrow donors across the country.

This was the second year that the donor drive was held at a Reign game in honor of Tanner Raobin, a life-long Kings and hockey fan who died due to Chronic Granulomatous Disease at the age of 19. Tanner was a beloved member of the Kings fan family, and his face has been worn or seen at every game since his passing thanks to the “Tannerheads” that were created.

Friday night’s event brought in 22 new donors to the cause, and raised about $200 toward the cause.

For more information about the Tannerheads, and the cause, you can visit their site.

A GOOD CAUSE, PART 2: The Reign held their annual end-of-the-season banquet Thursday night at the Doubletree Hotel in Claremont.

As part of the banquet, the Reign held their final jersey auction of the year. The auction raised $40,200 for the Be Perfect Foundation, a charity that helps with costs for those suffering spinal cord injuries. Hal Hargrave, who was treated at Casa Colina after suffering a traumatic spinal cord injury, started the charity in 2007. It also helps sponsor patients for Project Walk at the Claremont Club, which uses exercise to help recovery.

TONIGHT: The Reign and Aces will face off at 6 p.m. The game is nearly a sell out, with very few seats remaining. The Reign are hoping for another sellout to push their season attendance total to 272,695 (an average of 7,574).

Ontario enters the night leading the ECHL in attendance by 15 fans over Fort Wayne (Ind.), with both having played 35 games at home. The Komets, the Anaheim Ducks’ ECHL affiliate, play in a larger arena (capacity 10,500) and are expected to overtake the Reign at the final game of the season tonight.